'Mum was gagged, handcuffed and bludgeoned to death'

The violent murder of mother-of-three Janet Brown "totally shattered" her family and has baffled police for three decades.

Janet, a 51-year-old research nurse in Oxford, was home alone in the Chiltern Hills, near Radnage in Buckinghamshire, when someone broke in, handcuffed her and hit her on the head repeatedly with a heavy object.

The murder weapon was never found and the motive remains a mystery.

On the 30th anniversary of Janet's death in April 1995, her family and the police are calling for help in identifying her killer, who until now has "got away with it".

Janet's eldest daughter Zara Harden described her Mum as petite, capable, calm, kind and gentle.

"She was alone that night and defenceless," Zara said, "that's why it's so hard to try and understand why somebody felt the need to handcuff her and be so violent and brutal towards her.

"She was bludgeoned to death. You just don't imagine that someone could get away with something that is so horrendous.

"There would have been a lot of blood and somebody must know something and we just ask they please come forward to the police.

"It's not too late. The police have DNA from the scene so they just need a name to be able to find a match."

After training as a nurse and midwife, Janet had been working as a medical research nurse for Oxford University's Public Health and Primary Care department at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

At the time of her killing, Janet's husband Grahaem Brown had been working abroad in Switzerland.

The couple had three children; Zara who was living and working in London, Ben who was away at university and Roxane who was still living at home, but had been staying the night with a friend on 10 April 1995.

Her older sister Zara is relieved Roxane wasn't home because "I dread to think what would have happened if she'd have been there as well."

Janet was beaten to death sometime between 20:15 and 22:15 (GMT) in the evening at Hall Farm in Sprigs Holly Lane.

The next morning a builder arrived to work at the house, heard the burglar alarm and looked through a window.

He then saw Janet's naked lifeless body lying at the bottom of the stairs.

The head of Thames Valley Police's major crime investigation review team, Peter Beirne told the BBC Janet's killing was "extremely unusual" and "perplexing".

He explained that most burglaries take place when a property is unoccupied and it would have been obvious someone was at home as there were two cars on the drive.

He said: "It could have been a burglar. It could have been someone who knew Janet, we just don't know."

"She was bludgeoned to death for no apparent reason. She'd been handcuffed. Nothing appears to have been stolen from the house and there was no sexual motive."

Mr Beirne announced ten years ago a DNA profile had been developed from evidence collected at the scene in 1995 and revealed it belonged to a man unrelated to the Brown family.

He added: "We believe it could be a vital piece of evidence linking the killer to the scene."

So far no match has been found on the national DNA database which holds the DNA of almost six million people.

The cold case investigators have also seen and eliminated more than one thousand other men as being the source of the DNA.

Mr Beirne said "It's very frustrating we haven't had a result as of yet, but we're optimistic and our hope is that the next time we knock on someone's door their DNA matches and that's why we're making this appeal today.

"With the help of the public, ideally what we'd like is the names of anybody they've got suspicions of who they think could be responsible for this horrific crime."

Janet's family remain traumatised by what happened to her. Zara says they have all shed a lot of tears and remain fearful for their safety.

Zara has suffered panic attacks and still wakes often at night listening for noises.

She said her mum's killer or killers "have so far gotten away with it".

In a final plea for help she told the BBC: "We want to see them prosecuted and not have somebody who's extremely dangerous to still be out there on the loose. We just want to stop it happening again."

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